This review was submitted over 4 years ago, so some of the information it contains may no longer be relevant.
Rating
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The Role
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The Company
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The Culture
- 1. To what extent did you enjoy your work placement or internship?
- 2. To what extent did you feel valued by your colleagues?
- 3. To what extent were you given support and guidance by management/your supervisor(s)?
- 4. How busy were you on a daily basis?
- 5. How much responsibility were you given during your placement?
- 6. To what extent did/will the skills you developed, and training you received, assist you in your degree studies and beyond?
- 7. What was the general atmosphere in your office?
- 8. How well organised was the overall work placement or internship set up?
- 9. In terms of personal training and development, to what extent did the company or firm invest in you?
- 10. What were the perks on your work placement?
- 11. How appealing are future employment prospects within the organisation?
- 12. Was there a good social scene amongst any fellow placement students/colleagues?
- 13. What was the cost of living and socialising in the area you worked in?
- 14. What was the Nightlife like in the area you worked?
- 15. Were there many opportunities to get involved in activities outside of work?
The Role
I enjoyed multiple aspects, including the great flexibilty of working hours with the flexi time system, the willingness of people to help with your work and go out of their way to help, the firendliness, the knowlegde and feeling that your work may have a significant impact or utility somewhere. I also enjoyed being able to develop skills in which I have a interest but are not taught in my degree, i.e programming. The exiting and state of the art equipment was also rewarding to use. My only criticism is inherent in the security of the site, which limits the work it is possible to carry out on computers, using the internet e.g.
I was made to feel secure and looked after very quickly, not only be collegues in the same position and age range as myself, but also my boss and even my boss' boss. Everyone's primary seems to be that you are satisfied, but also able to carry out the work you need to. I was impressed by the importance which colleagues higher up the corperate ladder attach ed to my work, even though I am a summer student on level 1 pay, and I genuinely felt I was doing work which was beneficial to someone if not also the wider interests of the company.
I was given immeadiate support by more recent graduates who took the time to make sure I knew my way around, knew all the relevant information and ackronyms which are important to know, as well as crucial details such as the modus operandi of the company and requirements which I meet to do on a wekkly basis. My boss was very helpful in any query I had, and organised help for me immeadiately if I needed it.
It varied from day to day. At certain times I could easily fill a day's work with prramming for example, implementing ideas and functions. People were always excellent and giving ideas on what work needed to be done, so it wasn't difficult to find new tasks. sometimes I struggled to find enough to do in a day, but other times certain processes took the entire day, with moving around the site etc. and analysis taken into account.
I liked the fact that the onus was on myself to create my own responsibilty for the tasks I had. For example, I took it upon myself to streamline a certain data analysis process which involved extracting a lot of CSV data. I did this on my own initiative and hugely streamlined the process of collecting and processing data, though it was never specifically instructed that I shoould do so. One summer students took advantage of the fact that their work was potentially a small project, and didn't use much initiative, and so did the bare minimum, which was also possible to get away with. (i.e watching tv in the lab all day)
The ability to make connections with people and the social interactions which are typical of the workplace will be an invaluable piece of knowledge. Finding knowledge, and having the initiative to source it from the relevent people is also an invaluable skill. Techinically, I was very pleased that I was able to devote so much time to developing my programming skills in a cretive way, in a way which was personally beneficial but I beleive also will, in future, be of help to other colleagues.
The Company
The atmosphere was very calm and relaxed, people who you had never met were always more than willing to offer help and advice. On my third day or so a stranger started playing a game of chess in the office, and treated me as an equal colleague which was very nice.
The placement was surprisingly well organised. My arrival had been well discussed long before I had arrived. Tasks for me had been thoroughly planned and well established for my arrival and relatively short stay of 10 weeks. I had two meetings on my first day which excellently outlined the work I would be doing, and I could start work almost immeadiately which was very sartisfying.
I wasmostly left to my own devices, but in a way which I could inest in my own interests. For example, I was able to develop my code building skills and experimant planning skills very well. They didn't train me on anything specific, and I know of someone who knew no python but was expected to use it, so he spent several weeks being paid to learn it independently, which I think is very positive since the copmany allow you to learn at their expense.
Flexi Time
Sports and Social Club
Staff Sales/Staff Shop
Above 25 days holiday
Working from home
For me, the prospects of working here are very positive in many aspects. The two downsides for me are pay an location. I would ideally like a higher salary, though that is the same for everyone in dstl / civil service, since govenment pay is never great. I would also prefer to work in london, as salisbury is culturally lacking and quite small. The job satisfaction, however, I think would be hard to beat in many other jobs in the UK.
The Culture
The social scene wasn't bad at all. People were often willing to meet up outside work for drinks, gatherings, and nights out too. I have definitely formed friendships and enjoyed the company of the colleagues outside of the workplace. There were many groups on solcial media etc. to organise things, and people were very willing to make the most of their time here, and also to make the most of having a salary!
Salisbury is very cheap, so that side of things was great. My rent was incredibly cheap, and I was extatic to save so much money compared to london rent. It would be hard to beat on that front.
Nightlife was interesting. Most clubs are named after some kind of christian building, given the salisbury cathedral. (i.e, chapel, cathedral were two culbs). There is no student popultion herem as salisbury has no university though. This isn't necessarily bad, but it did have quite a different atmosphere to normal student outings.
There were plenty of clubs in the workplace (there are so many employees that there are lots and lots of clubs), though I didn't choose to partke in any of them, apart from a weekly pub quiz. I enjoyed the scenic cycle routes around the salisbury area, however. There were lot of oppurtunities though, including an onsite gym and plenty of sports clubs etc.
Details
Internship (1 Month+)
Information Technology, Science
South West
September 2015